She’s the team’s second-leading returning scorer and one of its most effective playmakers.<\/p>\n
This week, the 2026 Big East Freshman and Sixth Woman of the Year\u00a0took the first step in making sure she’ll be a full-go come the start of next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UConn announced Wednesday afternoon that Qui\u00f1onez underwent\u00a0successful surgery to repair a torn labrum on her left shoulder at\u00a0UConn Health on Monday. According to the team’s release, the forward is expected to be available for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n
Qui\u00f1onez missed eight games total last season, dealing with her shoulder injury. She missed UConn’s first two games of the year and six games between the end of January and the beginning of February, including UConn’s historic 96-66 takedown of rival Tennessee on Feb. 1 in Hartford. When she returned to action, she was often seen wearing a brace on her left shoulder during games.<\/p>\n
The forward averaged 10.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.0 steals per game in 31 total appearances last season. She was the brightest spot in the Huskies’ Sweet 16 and Elite Eight victories in Fort Worth, earning Regional All-Tournament Team honors and averaging 18 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.5 assists across the two games\u00a0in Texas. Qui\u00f1onez scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Notre Dame in the Elite Eight, to become the first\u00a0Husky to score 20 or more points off the bench in an Elite Eight or later round of the\u00a0NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really trust me, and I think that’s what gives me so much comfort and confidence to just go in there and do what I have to do,\u201d said\u00a0Qui\u00f1onez after the victory<\/a> over the Irish. \u201c\u2026I think just to be with this group, I think we have, like, something special that makes us different from other teams. And I’m just happy and grateful to be here and experience all of this with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Qui\u00f1onez is UConn’s first player from Ecuador.<\/p>\n The 6-foot-2 forward earned All-Big East Second Team honors last season and is expected to earn even more\u00a0offensive responsibility for the Huskies following Azzi <\/a>Fudd<\/a>‘s WNBA departure. Qui\u00f1onez will join junior Sarah Strong<\/a> as UConn’s top two playmakers and biggest frontcourt weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She’s the team’s second-leading returning scorer and one of its most effective playmakers. This week, the 2026 Big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3724],"tags":[87115,7,87116],"class_list":["post-739607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-basketball","tag-ct-insider"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116608944265108048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}